Bruins have what it takes to beat the Canadiens

Despite the animosity between the Bruins and Canadiens, the teams' 34th postseason meeting is about much more than emotion. Position by position, the Bruins are well equipped to eliminate their longtime rival in this year's best-of-7 series.

Heroes and villains. Scoundrels and saints. The dignified and the dastardly, the right and the wrong, the good and the evil.

Sorry, but Chapter 34 of the Bruins-Canadiens playoff history really isn’t about any of that, no matter how much fans may portray it that way and how much players on both teams dislike each other.

A clash of styles will certainly be renewed when the puck drops on Game 1 tonight at TD Garden (7:35, NBCSN, WBZ-FM/98.5), with the Bruins putting their more physical game against the fast and furious game plan of the Canadiens.

There are also some long-running 1-on-1 battles that will be hard to miss, like Bruins power forward Milan Lucic vs. Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin, B’s antagonist Brad Marchand against Habs lightning rod P.K. Subban, and centers David Krejci (Boston) and Tomas Plekanec (Montreal) in a contest between two Czechs who were Olympic teammates just a couple of months back.

Nobody’s saying this animosity is an act.

“Being a part of this organization, you just naturally learn to hate the Montreal Canadiens,” said Lucic, adding that pre-existing feuds “make rivalries rivalries, and playoffs great.”

But is the outcome of this best-of-7 really going to be determined by which team is better at hating the other? Hardly. It’s going to come down to which team can use its game to take the other team out of its game – and probably goaltending, too.

To their dismay, the B’s are still being asked how they’re going to keep up with the speedy Habs – even though they just proved in a five-game, first-round series against the Red Wings that speed doesn’t necessarily kill them.

The real issue is that the Canadiens’ fast players, as a group, are much better and largely more proven than the Red Wings, who proved to be a one-line team backed by a bunch of kids who weren’t ready for the Bruins’ style of playoff hockey.

Fast is great, but fast and good is better. The Bruins didn’t have to face that combination in Round 1, so the young or inexperienced players who came through the Detroit series with flying colors – defensemen Dougie Hamilton, Kevan Miller, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski, forwards Reilly Smith, Carl Soderberg and Justin Florek – will have a more difficult time earning their stripes in this round.

Example: Know how the Bruins like to boast that they’re so deep, they have a talent like Loui Eriksson on their third line? Well, the Canadiens have built enough depth at forward that Brian Gionta is a third-line player – and Daniel Briere plays on the fourth line.

Page 2 of 2 - A case can be made, in fact, that the forwards on both sides are relatively even, with the B’s perhaps getting a slight edge because more of their forwards are strong two-way players. At the same time, the Canadiens’ group of six defenseman would probably be ranked slightly ahead of the Bruins’, based on experience.

But goaltending? Montreal’s Carey Price is a tremendous talent with a gold medal (Canada) on his resume, but he has a sub-.500 playoff record (13-17) even after a four-game, first-round sweep of Tampa Bay, and has reached the second round for only the second time in six postseasons. Tuukka Rask’s trip to last year’s Stanley Cup final – and a nomination for this year’s Vezina Trophy – trumps Price.

Special teams? Again, the advantage goes to the B’s, especially in these playoffs, and to an extent over the regular season. This postseason, the Bruins have clicked at 37.5 percent on the power play and 90 percent on the penalty kill, compared to the Habs’ 15.4 and 71.4 (although they were shorthanded only seven times against the Lightning). In the regular season, Boston’s numbers were 21.7 and 83.6; Montreal’s were 17.2 and 85.1.

Finally, there’s this: As tremendous a Presidents Trophy-winning regular season as the Bruins had, they still had to prove they could defeat a style unlike their own to reach Round 2. Granted, the Wings were short on experience and affected by injuries – but the Canadiens’ first-round foe was even younger and without No. 1 goalie Ben Bishop. Now, the Habs must face a bigger, badder, much different animal – and Round 1 against the Red Wings showed everyone the Bruins aren’t so easy to outrun.

The prediction: This probably becomes a marathon and the B’s win it in seven games.

Mike Loftus may be reached at mloftus@ledger.com. On Twitter.com: @MLoftus_Ledger.